“If you want to come up with a few good ideas, or even one great one, then you have to generate lots of ideas” ~ Linus Pauling (one of only four individuals to have won multiple Nobel Prizes).

I’m Carl @FellowCreative. I’ve delivered ideas and helped solve problems directly for international names: Electronic Arts (EA), Intel, Nokia, NixonMcInnes, University for the Creative Arts (UCA), as well as talented pioneers like Remy Sharp (@Rem) and Jonathan Markwell (@Jot), to
name a few.

Reputed for identifying trends and future focused strategy. I’m a facilitator of insights, architect of citizen-brands and engineer of social-capital in the ever-growing engagement economy. An advisor to NACUE (National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs), anomalous speaker at conferences, recognised blogger of cognition and research fellow.

A perceptive creative professional with cross-functional, cross-disciplinary experience spanning design process and brand strategy, emergent technologies and cultural trends, decentralised social systems and sustainable enterprise. A resourceful co-ordinator with a rounded diagnostic approach to problem solving, capable of quickly learning, dissecting, reading between the lines and understanding foreign concepts to reveal alternative angles and transversal vectors, with an intellectual curiosity for uncharted shifting terrain (on or off the digital landscape).

I’m a catalyst, my role is usually mission orientated. I have a contagious enthusiasm for challenging norms and a high tolerance for ambiguity. With solid testimonials and an established client list I work ‘beyond What Is to deliver What Can Be™’ – R&D lab, think-tank, social enterprise, technology venture, creative agency, rhizomatic community or skunkworks project – I’m a valuable and inspirational element for any do-tank with an emphasis on discovery, not theory.

A creative midwife and joiner of dots, capable of weaving authenticity, co-design, human-centred-engagement and sustainability into the very fabric of an idea or strategy.

I believe creative insights often come in non-linear ways, through seeing connections and similarities between things we haven’t noticed or even tried before. I do well in situations that require divergent, lateral thinking in terms of metaphor, analogy, simile, abductive logic and provocative operation (PO). I challenge with integrity and directness. I make observations, and sometimes predictions. I’m experimental and experiential and always contextual. Learning through actually doing, to provide a more valuable pathway from ideas-lab to real-time and real-space.

I’m currently pondering future focused R&D opportunities. If you’d like to discuss how I could help your strategic research, creative development and innovation towards twenty-first-century economics (and an inter-dependent ecology), please do get in touch.

I’m not an evangelist. I’m a proponent of open-leadership, transparent communications and civic-data, and the practical application of theory and research focused on problems not disciplines, into business and social situations in the real world. I have a strong network of trustees and acquaintances, and a genuine interest in others. I thrive on meeting new people everyday and I can turn casual interactions into meaningful relations. I realise the importance of understanding what people really want and need. I recognize what drives behaviour, curates excitement and facilitates passion, and I suggest ways to channel that energy into projects between people, principles and technologies that otherwise wouldn’t meet – guiding collaboration through creativity, inspiration, support, trust, emotional and psychological intelligence and social sensitivity. Value can always be found through encouraging and enabling others. I have a relentless belief in people and a desire to help – its not just a nicety, it’s a natural and essential part of connection and engagement. Communication is not about talking; it’s about listening and understanding relevance – to inspire dialogue and multi-dimensional narratives, not monologue.

A peer not a boss. I can provide a drumbeat for decentralised organisation, helping top-down business structures develop a little hierarchical-ambiguity and open-chaos to get people into passionate conversation and action. I can map and unite advocates, form new circles, develop open-platforms and cultivate participation – inspiring change without being coercive. Aligning the needs and goals of industry and civics to ensure rich-insights, brand-equity and the early adoption of people-focused-ideas, cultural trends and emergent technologies. Creating meaningful sustainable value, igniting future thinking philosophy and engaging innovation – online or off, on-demand or live, through geographic location (such as GPS coordinate) or a point of interest (POI), and perhaps even through the orientation of a sensory object or mobile device.

Want to know more? Please do say hello.

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April 2010 sees two meetup’s planned…

Building upon the success of @BecomeKnown’s March meetup (which received a great review in the local news and attracted some new faces) I’m very happy to see a true Tuttle101 community spirit emerging – hope to see you at one/both of these:
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Evening Tipple101 by James @BecomeKnown

Tipple101 – Tues 20th April 2010 (7:00 pm) – organised by James @BecomeKnown – click here for more details!!

Venue: *somewhere* inside The George Vaults Rochester (Kent)
(35 The High Street, Rochester – click here for a map)

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Morning Tuttle.101 by Natasha @NatashaSexton

Tuttle101 – Monday 26th April 2010 (9:30 am) – organised by Natasha @NatashaSexton – click here for more details!!

Venue: upstairs in The George Vaults Rochester (Kent)
(35 The High Street, Rochester – click here for a map)

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In addition… some feedback on the following would be most welcome please! ‘-)
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Since I organised the first Tuttle.101 back in September 2009 I’ve tried to encourage one simple philosophy: ‘Tuttle101 is not owned or run by me @FellowCreative, it is in fact owned by, and exists because of a growing community of people – and this means that the community are free to shape it, use it, or discard it, as they please’.

I’ve done my utmost to keep the Tuttle and Tipple experience(s) very separate from the world’s of sales, marketing, corporate sponsorship and paid-monthly-memberships but since January I must admit that I have given much thought to the introduction of a logo/identity, not because I want to constrain, dictate or monetize, but because I believe that such a visual key may be useful in establishing further community support.

E.g. over the past few months various people have asked me if I could supply them some  visual assets for blog posts and articles but I’ve had nothing to give them – I’m convinced there’s only so many photos of people drinking coffee you can handle =)
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With the above in mind, I’d like to introduce two things and I’d love to hear your thoughts please:

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1. an eNewsletter sign-up system (built using CampaignMonitor or MailChimp) to send out a single email notification each month to a Tuttle.101 and Tipple.101 attendee list (1 email per month, with a simple subscribe/unsubscribe feature – it’ll be concise and to the point, with a simple design theme!).
   >> NOW AVAILABLE HERE

2. two logo’s for community use – one logo for tuttle.101, the other for tipple.101 (please tell me what you think of the following, they have been designed to work alongside pretty much anything in terms of imagery or colour – if the community like them I’ll prepare a host of downloadable assets for you to use on blog posts – and as you see fit).

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The above identity designs can also be found and commented on at  Flickr.com

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More information on Tuttle.101 can be found here.
More information on Tipple.101 can be found here.
More Information on Floor.101 can be found here.

*a better process for finding & writing to an MP* ???

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A site that has a generic letter to an MP that covers all the major issues with the existing Digital Economy Bill – in the form of a concise list that uses plain English not technical jargon or long words.

Such a letter would be in the form of clickable/selectable/applicable tick boxes to highlight what paragraphs the letter writer wanted to keep or amend. Once selected the text is 100% customisable. The User adds their name, address and based on their postcode a selection of MP’s is displayed (they can select all of them if they so wish). The system tracks the receipt of such a message and sends a tweet out to the users network that is trackable – a GoogleMap is created of letter senders. Perhaps Audio and Video messages too? Plus a feature that allowed Bloggers to submit their related blog posts (just like the http://www.blogactionday.org) ? with an integrated Twitter Avatar feature?
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Is this doable? Is it worth doing?
How long might it take?
Who might be able to do it easily? The following sites/APIs already exist:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com
http://belocal.com
http://www.writetothem.com (run by http://www.mysociety.org)
http://www.hearfromyourmp.com
http://tweetminster.co.uk
http://www.parliament.uk/about/contacting/mp.cfm
http://audioboo.fm
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Who might sponsor such a system? Google/Yahoo/eBay/Facebook

For me this has been the toughest and most unproductive week of this year – my mind is elsewhere…

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I’m frustrated and extremely concerned that very few (Designers, Developers, Freelancers, Bloggers, General Public, Politician’s etc) seem to recognize a major problem looming above above – in addition to that of next weeks Copenhagen Climate Change Conference…

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I urge you, please do your own research into the proposed Digital Economy Bill – trust me, its a big deal and it needs to be stopped!

Its likely The Bill will be passed by the House of Lords on the 16th of December, and it’ll be heard in the House of Commons on the 6th January.

Please help spread this message in any way you can! Things you can do:

Add a Twibbon to your Twitter Profile
Write & Promote a blog post and Tag it with #debill or #DigitalEconomyBill
Contact or Write To Your MP < this is the most important! MPs need to be aware of the problems!

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As my dad says, “Son, you need to think before you speak”
… I urge you, please consider this statement as I have done and make your own voice heard:
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Your ‘Freedom of Speech‘ is *no longer valid* if Your ‘Freedom to Think‘ is removed! – be it about what you might say, do, create or whom you might collaborate with or be inspired by.–

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The Digital Britain Report published in June 2009 and Digital Economy Bill proposed in the House of Lords sets out a vision for the future that has already raised many questions and set-off many alarm bells regarding data governance, information censorship and content licensing – in short its a massive melting pot that will effect the entire Digital Landscape – which in turn effects You and Your Freedom to Think!

Whether you’re a technology fan or not, its important for you to recognize that your bank statements, medical records, credit card transactions, phone connection, driving theory-test, wages, job applications, newspaper articles, txt messages, emails, television channels, internet services, music and even radio weather forecasts are now digitally connected and delivered – that effects your Right to Privacy and your Freedom of Speech. Obviously it needs some extremely serious consideration, however it appears to be being rushed (pushed) through in front of an election (less than 40 parliamentary days away) – this concerns me *and all of us* greatly!

Putting our Right to Privacy and our Freedom of Speech concerns aside; as a creative fellow the Freedom to Think, be inspired and inspire others is of utmost importance, I prioritize it over making money and I recognize it as more important than my Freedom of Speech. I choose to share and distribute my works and ideas openly using Creative Commons Attribution and I’m inspired by other peoples open content, ideas and conversation daily. I regard closed mindsets, corporate governance, copyright systems and patent laws as *the biggest barriers* to creativity, education, communication and innovation.

I’m not saying that making money from an idea is a bad thing – god knows its on my to-do list but I firmly believe that someone else should be able to access and share my ideas (or use them in a new way) provided they are not using them for financial gain or devaluing my design credit – in my opinion copyright and patent laws need to be redesigned to accommodate this – just imagine what we could do for charities and positive social change!

But I say again, its only the tip of the iceberg and it’s a waste of time campaigning for such things right now because we’ve got more pressing matters to handle!
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Click here to view the embedded video.

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Technically, the following act is illegal. Imagine if these laws were applied to your conversation, your ideas and your Freedom to Think:
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Click here to view the embedded video.

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I know I’m not the only person who thinks sharing ideas and information without boundaries is truly the key to economic growth, creative enterprise and innovation but from what I’ve seen and read I’m failing to find any evidence that the UK Government or Lord Mandelson are on my wavelength in any way, shape or form.

UK Government, driven by Lord Mandelson, recognizes that our existing communications infrastructures need to be updated. They plan to modernize us with some digital pipework, building blocks and legislation to cope with the futures demand; and to support economic growth, enterprise and innovation – this in itself sounds great!  but…

Whilst Lord Mandelson (Business Secretary and Minister for Information) is driving forward Three Strike proposals to disconnect people from the Internet in the event of copyright violations we are wasting our time arguing that copyright violations may or may not be illegal and do or don’t warrant punishment. The simple fact is this, content in all its forms is now as freely available as conversation and you can’t listen in on every conversation or introduce a giant swearbox – the ‘Business Secretary and Minister for Information’ must surely realize that the businesses of tomorrow won’t actually have secretaries, nor will information be administered – I’ll also suggest he’s smart enough not to care about our squabbling as it only buys him time to push, push, push…

If your mind is stuck on having the Internet as a Human Right or Legal Right as its already viewed by some countries in Europe then you need to look at the larger Digital Landscape and the scope of such non-future-proof policy making: If I download a pirated film, will I be disconnected from accessing my bank account or banned from attending my online Open University lecture?

Hannah Nicklin‘s recent Open Letter to Peter Mandelson was perfectly crafted, information packed and said everything it needed to in terms of a protest letter but as she points out in her more recent blog post ‘Its not working‘ – we need a more directed approach and real-world Campaign – so has anyone got any ideas?

Last Thursday (24th November 2009) I went to London to meet the founder of Louder.org.uk and the OpenRightsGroup.Org team. Together we are proposing a campaign (be it online, offline or preferably both) that focuses on today’s digital economy creators, thinkers and makers – tweeters, bloggers, designers, developers, musicians etc…
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The ultimate freedom is the freedom to think, to express, to have a voice, to create, to share, to connect with others, to collaborate, to innovate, to inspire and be inspired.
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Share your Creative Freedom! Connection is a Right!
We’ve got 40 days until YOUR Freedom is disconnected!

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PLEASE call your MP to tell them why the Digital Economy Bill shouldn’t be pushed through before the election << CLICK LINK << and if you want to help directly please email freedom@fellowcreative.com
– Share Your Creative Freedom! and spread the word!

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Disclaimer: The ’40 Days’ reference is based upon ’40 Parliamentary Days’ as suggested in conversation by the Open Rights Group – these thoughts fell from my fingers into the keyboard – they are my honest opinions and open thinking because that’s what blogs are for right? Please do comment or contact me directly if you feel I need to correct or adjust any details or references…

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As a gregarious Fellow who gets about quite a lot, I am fortunate to know a large number of diversely talented individuals and companies. So much so that I have never had to contact a recruitment agency to find someone with a particular skill set.

Although I often feel such a network has formed itself quite naturally, when I launched the Fellow brand I did consciously set out to meet gifted individuals that I might collaborate with and even be able call upon when and if I needed to. The name Fellow was born from the concept of exacting standards, academic connection, and a professional commitment to question everything and develop over time – but also the idea that I am a fellow creative, part of a larger community of talented individuals driving the future of technology, communications and creative disciplines forward into an uncertain future.

Many of the people I have met over the last few years have helped to shape what Fellow has ultimately become. I once read that Einstein wasn’t born a genius, he forged himself into one by surrounding himself with exceptionally smart people. I might be about as far removed from Einstein as a scruffy creative type can get, but we do share one thing in common: I am also surrounded by exceptional people.

Over the last few months, people from places like Tuttle, Tweetups, BarCamp and my broader social web have been getting in contact asking if I know anyone who can develop, say, widgets for this or a design for that. In each case I’ve been able to make those connections.

With this in mind, I am proud to launch Fellow Trustees.

The concept is very simple. The people and companies on this list I whole-heartedly recommend. They are exceptional at what they do and conduct themselves with absolute professionalism. I trust them enough to align my Fellow brand with them. They are Fellow Trustees.

If you are thinking about talking to a creative recruitment agency to help fulfill a project, I would say check out the individuals and companies on the following lists first (in time I may even develop some relevant twitter lists too but some of my recommended connections can’t be found on twitter).

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CLICK HERE TO VIEW LIST

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Over recent weeks I’ve been busy designing Full-Frontal.org programmes and adverts (among other things) and I’m now extremely pleased to be in a position to offer one lucky member of the @FellowCreative social web a chance to attend the Conference for FREE. I wish you all good luck and I’m really hoping that this opportunity might entice a few entries from some skint students – we’ve all been there right ‘-)

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Photo: FREE Full-Frontal Programme
Original photo taken and uploaded by Remy
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For one day only, some of the most talented and respected developers will be revealing the secrets of their craft in a series of informative talks. Organised by Left Logic and hosted by Remy Sharp – a popular face in the world of JavaScript and a recognized global figure in the art of jQuery –
Full Frontal 2009 will deliver an in-depth look at JavaScript to explore topics including cross-browser accessibility, high performance app development and language usage within mobile widgets.

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For your chance to win, simply decode the following statement and tweet the correct message along with the #tag and url link as shown below:

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G FMNC RM UGL UGRF LMRFGLE AMLACYJCB MP FCJB ZYAI DSJJ DPMLRYJ  #FullFrontal09  http://bit.ly/29Rz65

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Please note that the winning entry will be selected at random but if there’s less than ten correct entries overall then the first correct entry will be deemed the winner. The competition closing date will be Monday 16th November 2009 at 2pm GMT.

Full Frontal is being held on Friday November 20th at the
Duke Of York’s Picturehouse, Preston Circus, Brighton, BN1 4NA.
For more information visit Full-Frontal.org

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What is Tuttle?
The Tuttle Club is a loose association of people working better together both online and off.

It is not a business networking event. It is simply a meeting place for people to share in conversation, have a coffee, work on their laptop (with free WiFi), and hopefully talk to complete strangers about what they are reading, inspired by, or perhaps even working on in their shed or spare time – hopefully leading to some creative collaboration and long-term innovation.

In this video, Lloyd Davis (the Founder of Tuttle) loosely outlines it’s story in conversation with Chris Dalby:

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When and Where?
Monday 5th October 2009 may seem like a strange day for a networking event, but I repeat, this is not a business networking event! 9.30am – 11.30am, wear what you like, bring who you like, share what you like, and it doesn’t necessarily have to end at 11.30am.

The Venue: The George Vaults (35 The High Street, Rochester – upstairs!). It’s free to attend (you might have to buy your own coffee).

You don’t need to sign-up to attend but please do email or leave a comment below (with preferably your name and email) so we have a rough idea who’s and how many are coming. If anyone would like to sponsor the coffee please don’t hesitate to let me know =)

If you’d like more information please email (tuttle101@fellowcreative.com) or call me directly (Carl: 07929 601737).
More information on the ‘now global’ Tuttle Club can be found via the original tuttleclub blog.

We look forward to meeting you there =)

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Photo: Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905
Original photo taken and licensed under creative commons by Me
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Now, upon hearing the term ‘Bluetooth headset’ you can be forgiven for conjuring up images of ‘traditional earpieces and call-centre esq microphones’. The truth does in fact reveal a pair of sleek looking DJ-esq headphones, equipped with microphone functionality, and capable of connecting wireless-ly and seamlessly to almost any device via Bluetooth – including your mobile phone and Bluetooth enabled laptop (my Mac integrated them within seconds without any need for a separate software install).

As a freelancer, and regular co-worker at places like The Skiff, I spend much of my time wearing a pair of Sony MDR-500 DJ headphones, after four years I’m now on my second pair. Without breaking the bank (available for around £50), and remembering that I’m not a professional DJ or Sound Engineer, the MDR-500′s are my preferred ‘cans’ for both sound quality, environment-noise reduction and build comfort (DJ professional MDR-700′s are available for around £85 but these are unwarranted for my uses).

With the above said, I’ve now tried Nokia’s BH-905′s, and I might never buy another pair of MDR’s (and from a life-long fan of Sony this is big news!).

Nokia’s headset is priced at around £250, that’s £200 more expensive than my beloved Sony’s and I’d suggest the sound quality and build quality is extremely similar, but as a user of audio/video services like Skype and Phreadz, and as a regular attendee of virtual events and sometimes noisy co-working environments, the Nokia headset comes equipped with ten powerful weapons that appeal to me greatly:

Its the first product to feature ‘multi-microphone feed-forward active noise cancellation technology’… meaning its equipped with ten individual microphones that work together to provide more accurate noise cancellation for both voice and music.

For any freelancers or co-workers out there who’d like to make calls to clients without them hearing everything else that’s going on around you, or as a co-worker who’d like to work to the sound of your music (or even in silence) without distraction I suggest that Nokia’s certainly worth a look.

Nokia are convinced they’ve created the best Bluetooth headset ever built, and being totally honest I’m inclined to agree but I feel the £250 pricetag won’t make it the winner it should be.

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However, when I think how much some people spend on other microphones, headsets and VOIP services, and how ridiculous some Bluetooth earpieces look, I think £250 might actually be warranted – especially if I could actually charge it through the USB port of my Mac (on the move) but from what I’ve seen it currently has to be charged directly from a plug on a mains supply which in my book is its only major flaw – I hope you’re listening Nokia! please correct me if I’m wrong but there was no USB cable in the box I demo’d ? =)

The Headset comes packed in a case with audio cables and adapters galore. Finally I’ll note that the headphones do work via a normal audio-jack if you wish to save Bluetooth juice, but be aware that if they run out of power the noise cancellation feature won’t work (I’m yet to discover if the voice microphone dies at this point too but I’m guessing it does?).

PLEASE NOTE: Micky Fin (Editor of NokiaUsers.net) has since informed me that the Headset does recharge via a MicroUSB FTW!! – many thanks Micky ;-)

Here is Nokia’s explanation of the technology:

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More details can be found here on the official Nokia BH-905 micro-site.

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To read more content from our Budapest adventures here are some relevant links:

#BudaViral: Social Media Adventures in Budapest with Nokia
Nokia Nseries Campaign: A Storyboard of Secrets from Budapest #BudaViral
Brand Philosophy: Is Nokia a Starfish or a Spider?
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My Review: Nokia Booklet 3G
Ben’s Review: TheReallyMobileProject.com – Nokia Booklet 3G
Stefanos’ Review (in Greek): Pestaola.gr – Nokia Booklet 3G
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N97 mini and N900 stuff can be found here: http://thereallymobileproject.com
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The past months have proven extremely busy with client projects and some might say dreaded speculative work (from the usual bread-and-butter design-for-print work such as brand guideline production for enterprise and magazine adverts for talented independents like Remy Sharp of Full-Frontal Conference, to client WordPress sites and blog development; lending some free time to organizations like Nacue and P45 Camp – plus more strategic dot-joining stuff like writing Social Media adoption documents relating to Training & Education, online conversation and other shiny technologies – including some really cool opportunities in the arena of live-streaming video (hopefully more to come on that!).

From what I can remember I’ve not attended #tuttle in weeks and I missed Cozy Tweetup but I did get to the AudioBoo bash to meet interesting tweeple like @briancondon @dailytwitter and @alexwoodcreates. I’ve also had the pleasure in working with great teams like Toggle and Leaps & Bounds.

In addition, I managed to take six days out to go camping in Cornwall which involved an awesome sea-fishing boat trip landing me twelve fish approximately five miles of the coast of Newquay, plus given the fact I’m self-employed I managed to crowbar in three of those days to work from a tent surrounded only by cow fields, friends and cider =)

Sadly all of the above has meant that my ‘already infrequent blog posts’ have been ‘seriously thin on the ground’ but a break in my client workload over recent days has resulted in an out-pouring of thoughts and related research links from a build up of draft text/blog documents, quotes and random pages of iPhone Notes I’ve been pondering, consuming and bookmarking over recent months.

This weekend I unexpectedly managed to attend one day of Brighton BarCamp 4. And I’m hoping to get to visit Tunbridge Wells Tuttle this week.

I’ve currently got three paid client projects on the project board but in true ‘non-linear’ thinking fashion I’m also pursuing a few other endeavors/ideas including the long standing SustainableWidget.com plan, the creation of Floor101 – an open Co-working Space for Creative and Digital freelancers in Kent and #Deathbook – an open-source campaign to raise awareness of Digital Literacy and Asset Legacy.

I’ll leave this post here for now. If you have any thoughts please do comment below and I will reply =)

Positive thoughts and Paulo Ceolho proverbs,
Carl @fellowcreative